Dropped
by Robyn the Perpetually 15
Summary: I wake up in Tales of Symphonia. Seriously. Don't read this, it's boring.
1. Waking up can be painful

A/N: Ahahaha, reverse psychology!

But seriously, I can't believe I wrote this. Scratch that, I can't believe I'm _posting_ this, considering exactly one person in the entire world would find it even remotely interesting. I really should be working on my actual stories, but Zelos is being weird and so I'm writing this instead. Go blame him.

Zelos: You don't have to write it, you know.

Robyn: But you'd bug me until I did.

Zelos: Haha.

Chapter One

It was in the middle of a quite pleasant dream involving Tseng from Final Fantasy 7 and a swimming pool that I woke up with my nose on the floor and an aching back. Not really taking in my surroundings, I irritably reached over to turn off my alarm clock, only to belatedly realize that it wasn't on; nor was it even there, for that matter. I blinked, and noted somewhat blearily that my glasses were squished up against my face in a most unbecoming manner; I had fallen asleep with them on, I assumed.

It was only at this point that I remembered that my apartment didn't have any hardwood floors and that my last memory was of eating at the university coffee shop. _Crap_, I thought to myself, somewhat panicked. _Have I somehow gotten myself kidnapped?_

I immediately berated myself for my overactive imagination and instructed myself to examine my situation. Not making any sign of being awake, just in case, I first decided that my still-present bookbag was why my back hurt. A two-thousand-page kanji dictionary will do that to you. My hands weren't tied or anything, so that probably ruled out kidnapping. With my sense of sight limited by the fact that my face was smushed up against the floor, I pricked my ears for more clues.

Which nearly gave me a heart attack, for I heard someone breathing steadily not a meter away from me.

I sucked in a breath, which was seemingly overheard by the other occupant of the room. I heard a snort and then a somewhat familiar voice saying "I know you're awake."

_Holy cheese doodles, that sounded exactly like Cam Clarke._ Dismissing that rather out-of-context thought as inappropriate for the situation, I slowly raised myself up on my hands and knees, motion somewhat inhibited by my heavy bookbag. I knew I was shaking, but I hoped the other guy wouldn't notice. _I probably just passed out from...caffeine overdose?...and this guy helped me out. He could've at least put me on a couch or something. Bastard. _Realizing that I was babbling to myself and staring at the floor, I forced myself to look at my savior...captor...whoever.

Only to have another heart attack, for the man I was looking at was undoubtedly Kratos Aurion. Either that, or a really, really, _really_ good cosplayer.

I decided this was a dream. One of those very realistic dreams in which you say to yourself, "This has to be a dream! But it's too realistic to be a dream" and then you wake up and it was a dream after all.

Something in the back of my mind noted that my thoughts were remarkably coherent for a dream. Deciding to go along with it just for kicks, I said remarkably _in_coherently, "Um, hi?"

"Indeed." The Kratos-guy had an expression on his face that I immediately catalogued as "Kratos skeptical-look." Which meant that he would probably be wearing that expression a lot. "Are you aware of where you are and how you got here?" he continued, getting straight to the point.

"Um, no?" Why were all my sentences coming out with invisible question marks attached at the ends?

From what I knew of Kratos, this was his cue to sigh and close his eyes, but apparently not wanting to let me out of his sight, he opted to merely sigh. "You are in the House of Salvation north of Triet. You appeared, suddenly and out of nowhere, unconscious on the floor roughly two and a half hours ago." So he _could_ have put me on a couch or something. Did he know how uncomfortable that had been? "Do you have any explanation for this?"

I decided to go with my earlier answer of "Um, no?". I figured that "You're really just a figment of my imagination" wouldn't go down too well.

My bookbag was really doing a number on my shoulders by this point, so I decided to shrug it off. Kratos visibly stiffened, and said in a somewhat ominous voice, "If you have come to harm the Chosen, I will show you no mercy."

What, did he think I had a bomb in there or something? I raised my hands in what I assumed to be the international sign of surrender and said, trying to keep the tremors out of my voice, "I assure you that is not my intent." Whoa, sudden articulacy.

Kratos nodded at my bag. "If this is true, then you will empty your pack without complaint."

_I will, will I?_ my treacherous mind said snarkily, but I nevertheless began the process of removing my possessions.

Five textbooks, one dictionary, one novel, four notebooks, and too many pencils to count later, my bookbag was empty and Kratos had yet to find anything suspicious. Or at least so I assumed, as he leaned back with a nod and seemed to relax somewhat. "You appear to be harmless," he said finally, as if I didn't know that myself. "But appearances may be deceiving, so I fear I cannot trust you just yet. Miss Sage?"

These last two words were spoken to someone standing outside a door I hadn't noticed before, and a familiar woman walked into the room, looking as hostile, if not more so, than Kratos himself. I guessed she had heard the entire conversation, such as it was. "I sense nothing unusual about her," she said, voice calm. "That does not necessarily rule out malicious intent."

As the two continued on in voices too quiet for me to hear, I finally got a chance to think and assess my situation. So far, I knew I was Sylvarant, with at least Raine, Kratos, and one of the Chosens. Considering their concern for the Chosen's safety, I figured it was Colette. Raine evidently trusted Kratos, so this was either entirely after the game, or before Kratos's betrayal. Given the company I was in and the tense atmosphere, I decided that it was the latter.

I blinked, realizing that I was being spoken to. "I'm sorry?"

"As I said, for the present we will not consider you a threat," said Raine, somewhat annoyed that I hadn't been listening.

"Um, thanks?" Darn that question mark.

"However, do not consider yourself off the hook," continued Kratos patiently. "If we were not in such a hurry, we would take more precautions."

_Well, thank goodness for world-threatening situations,_ I thought to myself. "So you're not going to interrogate me?" I said out loud.

If anything, Kratos looked amused. "I never said that. It will merely not be to the extent that it would be normally."

"Your name?" said Raine, before I could get a chance to speak. Great, they were tag-teaming me.

"Robyn," I said, after a pause. If they were going to call me anything, then dag-nabbit, they were going to call me by the name I always wanted.

By the sidelong glances they threw each other, I guessed that they knew I was lying about my name, but they chose to ignore that for now. "Where are you from?"

Deciding that pretending to be from Sylvarant would just get me in trouble, I answered with my real hometown. They looked at each other again, and Raine asked, "Have you heard of this village?"

"Not in all my travels, no." So at least now Kratos wouldn't be suspicious that I was from Tethe'alla sent by the Renegades like Sheena.

But wait, my kanji dictionary...did Mizuho use kanji? _It's a dream,_ I told myself as my heart threatened to jump into my mouth. _It'll work out._

"Where are you really from?" Raine asked sharply, eyes boring into mine. Whoa, she _was_ scary.

"Um, that _is_ where I'm from," I said, wishing I could think of a better way to do this. "It's in the United States," I added, as if that would help.

Kratos looked pensive. "Do you even know where Triet is?" he asked slowly. When I shook my head nervously, deciding to play dumb (I didn't think they'd take too well to being told they're characters in a video game), he sighed, actually closing his eyes this time. "Sylvarant?" he prodded.

"Is it in Africa?" I said, figuring that if there was some country I'd never heard of, it would be in Africa. Not that they would get the joke.

He opened his eyes, seemingly having made a decision. They were very pretty eyes, but right now they were freaking me out. "As much as I hate to admit it, I can only come to the conclusion that you are from another plane of existence."

Gee, thanks. I hadn't figured that out.


	2. This isn't how it's supposed to happen

Chapter Two

I was apparently accurate in my analyzation of the timeline, as several hours later I sat eating breakfast with Kratos, Raine, and Colette, having arrived in the middle of the night. That could only mean the journey of regeneration had just begun. And surprisingly, despite my normal apathy towards Colette's character, I found her quite pleasant to talk to, though it may have just been in relief to not be glared at constantly by someone. Having "learned" their names by this point, I was now chatting animatedly with her about small furry animals. Always a decent fallback plan, that.

In the middle of my explanation of the guinea pig, Raine finally spoke up, having previously been content to sit and stare at me. "This...world of yours. What is it like?"

I could only stare, having no good way to answer this question. "Uhh, world-like?"

She chuckled, somewhat nervously if I was any judge. And I wasn't. "I'm sorry, I know that's a somewhat broad question. But is it anything at all like ours?"

I blinked. Maybe? "Well, do you know what a computer is?" Here I found myself glancing surreptitiously at Kratos, as if he would nod and do the explaining for me. And then I realized, oh crud, he probably noticed me glancing at him and is wondering why I'm connecting him with computers and if I know anything about him and if he'll have to kill me. The man is paranoid, I tell you.

At Raine's somewhat confused look, I continued, "I guess not. Um, they're like information storage systems that can keep track of a lot of stuff and you can access it really quickly without searching through shelves of books. And you can play games on them and use them to talk to people on the other side of the world." There was an awkward pause, and I felt the need to fill it. "So, um, if you don't have computers, it's gonna be pretty different."

It turned out that the pause was caused by Raine going into shock, as she had by now recovered and asked me rapid-fire questions that I had no way of answering -- I had no idea of how computers worked, except for a vague idea that electricity was involved somehow. Surprisingly enough, Kratos came to my defense, saying, "Leave the girl be. She must be confused enough as is."

I nodded emphatically, then internally bristled at his label of "girl." Well, I kind of did look like a fifteen-year-old, and my speaking abilities left much to be desired. Right, note to self: use the worlds "totally," "like," and "stuff" less often.

"Don't mind the Professor, she's interested in this sort of thing," added Colette.

I looked at Raine in mock surprise. "Professor? You're a professor?" At her nod, I continued, "That's awesome. What are you a professor of?"

Raine looked somewhat embarrassed. "Actually, I'm a teacher at a local school, so I'm not a professor of anything in particular. But I am currently working on my thesis about how the Balacruf dynasty -- " She broke off. "I'm sorry, you wouldn't know about that."

"No, no, go on," I protested, waving a hand. "What's the Balacruf dynasty? Besides, you know, a dynasty."

After that we got into a discussion about how Cleo II's decision to move the capital affected the geopolitical status of the surrounding region -- well more like I listened and she lectured. If I ever got around to actually writing that ToS prequel it could be very useful.

It occurred to me suddenly that I had a man directly involved in that prequel sitting right next to me. If I was feeling particularly brave, I could actually _ask_ him, and I would get the real story instead of my fevered imaginings. Presuming, of course, that he wouldn't chop my head off first.

Abruptly Raine broke off, seemingly having noticed my pensive look. "What's wrong?"

I looked down at my plate and pushed some crumbs around. I didn't want her to think I wasn't interested -- I was, really -- but I couldn't tell her the truth, so I spoke up about something that had been on my mind for awhile. "It's just that, hearing you talk about all this, it made me realize that all the knowledge I have is moot now. Nobody needs to know the military tactics of the ancient Romans, and nobody here speaks Japanese, right?"

I couldn't see Kratos's expression, considering he was sitting right next to me, but Raine and Colette looked sympathetic. The emotionless, analytical part of my brain that I hated thought to itself, _Good, now I have Raine's trust as well._ Colette's was no trouble at all -- she trusts anyone anyway, and the small fuzzy animal discussion hadn't hurt any either.

"Knowledge like that isn't everything," said Raine soothingly, though she had a look on her face that said she didn't quite believe it herself.

I shook my head. "No, no, I mean in my own world it was the only thing I had going for me. I have no useful skills whatsoever. I can't even make a sandwich without messing it up somehow. So back then -- " I paused. That made it sound like it was more than just a few hours ago. "I mean, my only hope was to become a translator or a professor, because otherwise I would have no way to make a living. Now I can't even do that."

Colette reached across the table, as if to pat my hand reassuringly, but pulled back at the last second and ended up patting the table instead. "I'm sure you can work something out."

I smiled weakly. "Thanks." I looked back down at my plate. That brought up another problem. Living in Sylvarant and meeting the heroes was an awesome concept and all, but would I ever get back home?

The plate disappeared from view as someone took it out from under my nose. An elderly priestess was taking our plates back to the kitchen, a building separate from the rest of the House. The Houses of Salvation -- or this one, anyway -- were considerably bigger than were shown in the game. Besides the prayer area and the bedroom upstairs for travelers, there was also living quarters for the priests, priestesses and other staff, the separate kitchen mentioned earlier, an eating area off of the bedroom, a laundry room, stables, and presumably an outhouse somewhere. Just more evidence of what was going on was the real deal.

Kratos abruptly stood up and followed after the priestess. We three girls left behind looked at each other and shrugged. We sat about in an awkward silence until Kratos returned.

He crooked a finger at me. "Come with me."

I got up wordlessly and followed him. Despite my awe at meeting my favorite characters come to life, Raine and Colette were pretty easy to talk to, but Kratos was just intimidating. I mean, here was this guy I had obsessed over for a couple months, in the flesh -- okay, thinking dirty thoughts now, stop that. Combine that with his personality and his extreme age that at this point only I knew about, and my generally deference to anyone above 27, and you get me following Kratos around like a little lost puppy.

And if you would, _please_ stop staring at his butt. Yes, thank you.

As I came back to myself, I found that a priest was talking to me about who-knows-what and that I was nodding dumbly. I rewound a bit in my head -- yes, this is the girl I was talking about, a quiet thing isn't she? we do need a new scullery maid, room and board -- I'll pay for her first few days' basic expenses -- no, that's fine -- can you provide her with suitable...

Eh? I was going to work at the House of Salvation?

Only a moment or two had passed. "...and your duties will include general cleaning, dusting and mopping and such, along with laundry and dishwashing," the priest was saying. Ugh, he looked kinda like that creepy guy on the bus who was always trying to talk to me. No, stop staring at his mustache... "...And Sister Holly will show you to your room."

There was another women in the room now, and where was Kratos? Had he left already? I dimly remembered him dropping out of the conversation and quietly going back through the door. What was wrong with me? A really weird form of jet lag?

And did that mean I wouldn't get to tag along on their adventures? I would be a maid for the rest of my life?

This is a dream, I reminded myself again. I'm the one in control here. I silently willed myself to grow wings -- the feathery kind, not the glow-in-the-dark butterfly kind -- but only succeeded in eliciting a weird look from Sister Holly. Eh, I was always bad at lucid dreaming. Lucid, that would be an awesome name for a character...

_Stop drifting off_, my annoying little internal voice ordered me, and I forced myself to pay attention to what she was saying. Turned out it was mostly gossip about the other Sisters and Brothers, interspersed with the occasional remark that this just happened to be the kitchen -- gee thanks, the pots and pans didn't really tip me off -- and as soon as we arrived at what I judged to be the living quarters, I interrupted, "Excuse me, but could I go get my stuff? I need to..." No, stop stressing, she's just looking at you. "...I want to settle in."

She nodded and waved me off, and as soon as she was out of earshot I sighed in relief in being free from her endless prattling. Note to self: avoid Sister Holly.

But no, I probably wouldn't be seeing her again -- I would be adventuring with Lloyd and the gang. Right?

Except on my detour to the room they were staying in, they were gone. Kratos's sword-polishing kit, Raine's books, Colette's hairbrush -- all conspicuously absent. The only one in the room was a woman making up the beds.

"Um." I was barely squeaking now, in fear of abandonment. "The people who were here earlier..."

"Oh, they left a little bit ago," she said helpfully, pointing out a window. Indeed, I could just barely see a glint of silver as the light reflected off of Raine's retreating head. "The cute guy said something about an early start."

She went on, but everything she said was blocked out as a single thought was left in my mind:

_Craaaaap._

A/N: I don't know how far I'm going to go with this. Not that you care. But just in case you do. So don't get your hopes up. Not that they _are_ up. Bah.


	3. Just let me pretend

Chapter 3

This sucked. This sucked majorly. This was the epitome of suckiness. I would end up in the suck hall of fame. And the hall of fame for needless repetition.

I allowed myself one last "this sucks" before moving on to general sulking. I, a highly intelligent person with a bright future, was stuck doing menial labor for the rest of eternity just because stupid Kratos didn't have the patience to wait for five freakin' minutes. I ever saw him again, I would tackle him and show him my work-scarred hands, saying how I would never be able to hold a pencil again.

No, scratch that, that's a bit melodramatic. No, it's _not_, dammit, Kratos has screwed me over. No, the _world_ has screwed me over. I scowled at the floor I was currently scrubbing free of scuff marks. The guy whose boots were messing up my floor was screwing me over.

"Hey, 'scuse me?" the guy said in an awfully familiar voice, and I looked up to an awfully familiar spikey head. "Where's the outhouse?"

I pointed wordlessly. Holy crap, that was Lloyd. He grinned in thanks and my heart melted a little. All of a sudden I realized why all the female characters -- and heck, if Zelos was any judge, some of the male characters too -- seemed to fall in love with him.

He walked off and I saw Genis smirking at me. I realized my mouth was hanging open a bit. Great, now he thought I had a crush on Lloyd. I very maturely stuck my tongue out at him.

"Oh, and hey," said Lloyd behind me. What, was he done with the bathroom already? Never mind, I didn't want to know. "Has Col -- had the Chosen come through here?"

"Chosen?" I repeated in genuine confusion, though for different reasons. Had Kratos or anyone even told me about the Chosen?

"A blonde girl, klutzy, likes dogs --"

"Oh, you mean Colette?" Should I pretend I knew what was going on? Wait, I did know what was going on, I just wasn't supposed to -- oh screw it. I ever met Kratos again, I'd just say the priests had told me. "Yeah, she left this morning -- wait, _she_ was the Chosen?"

Lloyd nodded happily and Genis asked, "Which way did she go?'

"Off south, towards Triet -- _she's_ the _Chosen?"_ Yeah, play it up.

"And she was with an arrogant guy and a lady who looked like Genis?" Lloyd continued as if I knew who Genis was, which I did.

I nodded, saying somewhat dreamily, "I spoke to the _Chosen!"_ I was kind of getting myself worked up now. And the future savior of the world was _right in front of me..._

"Thanks!" said he, and with that he was off to the outhouse. Not in front of me anymore, then.

I found myself looking at Genis, who was looking back. After an extremely brief staring match he laughed and stuck out a hand. "I'm Genis, and that was Lloyd. Sorry he's so rude."

I shook his hand and giggled nervously. No, stop that, you're looking like a ditz. "No, it's okay." I looked at him appraisingly. He was a suspicious little bugger, but if I could gain Lloyd's trust, maybe he could convince Genis to let me come along...

"I'm back!" Lloyd screeched from, once again, behind me. I shrieked and Genis laughed uproariously at my reaction. "I can tell," I said, embarrassed.

"Do you think we could buy some food here?" Genis asked. "Enough to last us to Triet?"

Oh, yeah, they probably hadn't had enough time to gather much food when they were kicked out of Iselia. I figured that I could donate someone else's food to the cause. "Sure, I'll take you to the kitchens," I said, standing up. As I led them, I asked Lloyd cautiously, as I was setting up a conversation that I hoped would go in my favor, "So are you the Chosen's followers?"

"Something like that, yeah." Lloyd scratched the back of his head. So he actually did that. I suddenly felt the ridiculous urge to take notes.

I grabbed his arm, somewhat startled at my own boldness. "Could you take me with you?" I asked, desperation bleeding its way into my voice.

"What?"

"This place is so boring! There's no one but old people here!" That much was true. "I don't want to wither away and die here!"

He shook my arm off gently. "Can you defend yourself?"

Now it was my turn to go, "What?"

"If a wolf was coming at you, would you get eaten?"

Great, what a time for Lloyd to be logical, of all things. "Wolves don't eat people," I huffed in hopes of distracting him.

No such luck. "Whatever." He shook his head. "I understand you and all, but it's dangerous out there. You'd be much safer staying here."

My last chance was slipping away. "But what if I don't want 'safe'?" I asked, knowing even as I said it that I would be shot down.

"I just can't do that," he said, shaking his head again and looking at Genis. Genis nodded approvingly, and Lloyd looked back at me with a firm look on his face.

I backed away from them slightly and looked at my shoes. "Fine," I muttered, and turned away. "Kitchen's in the building with the giant chimney. Someone should be in there."

As I stalked away, I thought I heard Lloyd yell "I'm sorry," but I was determined not to hear it.

Stupid Lloyd. Like father, like son.

Lloyd and Genis had left fifteen minutes ago, and I was back to scrubbing floors, but this time I was more depressed than angry. I felt bad for snapping at Lloyd. If anything, I was mad at myself for thinking myself important enough to go with him, but I just couldn't stand the thought of a life of mediocrity, especially in a world of heroes like him.

It was then that I began to seriously consider how to get home. Well, I wasn't going to hang out with any of my favorite characters, and I couldn't even pretend to by playing on my Gamecube. And judging by the list of chores I was expected to get done by the end of the day, I probably wouldn't have any time to write or draw either.

So how to get home. Well, the obvious option was to wake up, but it was gradually dawning on me that maybe this wasn't a dream. It was far too long, for one thing -- if this had been a real dream, I wouldn't be arduously scrubbing floors, but I'd suddenly be off at my middle school that was gradually turning into the mall, talking with Meg from Family Guy, and I would have completely forgotten about the Tales of Symphonia dream by now. Generally my imagination was a lot better than this. Although that would explain why that one priest looked like the creepy guy on the bus.

So, assuming that this was real, I had to figure out how I had gotten here in the first place. I don't normally suddenly fall asleep while drinking frozen mochas, so falling asleep again probably wasn't the solution. Maybe I would just have to wait for another random portal to take me back.

Another, more far-fetched idea was to somehow contact the Renegades. They knew how to travel between Tethe'alla and Sylvarant, so maybe they could figure out how to get me home. But then I would run the risk of being taken captive and being experimented on, so that was probably out. No matter how much I wanted to meet Yuan.

And as I worked doggedly at the grime between the floorboards and resigned myself to staying here, I heard screams outside and things went, as cliché as it is, from bad to worse.

Curious but cautious creature that I am, I crept to the window and looked out. A band of what I presumed to be Desians were marching up the road, and the people outside were fleeing in. One of the slower ones was being interrogating by a Desian who looked like the leader. The priest kept shaking his head nervously until he was knocked off his feet by a backhand across the face. The Desian looked back up, and I thought he was looking at me; I ducked back down and sat on the floor, breathless with fear.

The door burst open and the Desians came in, laughing among themselves. Maybe they were just here to rest? But my hopes were dashed when the went around the room with strange devices, passing them over the people in the room and looking at some sort of diagnostic screen. The scared priests and priestessess and the occasional traveller were looked over and eventually dismissed. Occasionally one Desian would nod, and a poor hapless soul would be dragged outside.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but as they got closer and closer to me, I figured out what was going on. If the Iselia Ranch had a non-agression treaty, then this must be the closest place to get humans for the ranch. The thought entered my mind that Kratos had told Yggdrasill on me, but I suppressed it as soon as it came -- no matter how intimidating that man was, he wasn't _evil. _Unless he had told Yuan, and these were Renegades? But then wouldn't they just ask for a Robyn?

They came to me far too quickly. I saw a pair of boots in front off me and felt my hair go staticky, and before I could even begin to panic properly someone had grabbed hold of my arms and I was being hauled out the door.

Now I knew what the term "cold sweat" meant. The three other people also being restrained in handcuffs looked like I felt. None of us said anything.

Why wasn't I running away? Run away, idiot. You'll become an Exsphere. But they were already leading us off in single file with a preciseness that scared me. This was _routine_. These people lived in a world where they had to be resigned to the fact that this could happen to them any day. The Desians were even joking around. I think one was leering at me, but I decided to ignore him, to make it easier on myself.

Just let me pretend everything's all right...

A/N: Whee, short chapters.


	4. Is there such a thing as a third chance?

Chapter 4

We had walked to the ranch, it was late evening, and I was dead tired. But no, I was assigned to clean out the cell I was sharing with three other women. Yay, more cleaning. The Desians watched us, probably looking down our shirts, though I decided to ignore this too, until they decided the cell was sufficiently spotless for the night. Of course, this was about half an hour after we had got rid of the last actual spots.

I needed to pee desperately. There was a dark hole in the corner of the cell that I really hoped wasn't the toilet. But I was far to embarrassed to even ask, so instead I did the "I-need-to-go-potty" dance until one of the women pointed me resignedly towards the hole. Dammit.

The other women politely looked away, but it was humiliating nonetheless. I had to squat awkwardly, and there was no toilet paper. I would probably catch some horrible disease within a few days.

I fell asleep sitting curled up in a corner, and woke up the same, far too early. A Desian was yelling through the door that I needed to come with him. The other women didn't look at me as they were lead off by another Desian to who-knows-where with the rest of the prisoners. Us four newbies went off to another room filled with frighteningly technical-looking equipment.

We were seated in a row as we waited. None of us spoke or looked at each other, lost in our own sullen thoughts. I guess this is why no one ever organized prison breaks. They kept us demoralized pretty effectively.

One by one I saw them led away, not to come back. Eventually I was alone in the room. I kicked my feet against my chair. They hadn't even left anyone to watch over me. I could escape, grab a weapon and a disguise, sneak my way out of here. But my butt remained firmly planted on my chair, and my feet seemed content to kick uselessly.

By the time a Desian came back, I hadn't even tried to leave. No wonder they hadn't bothered to leave a guard. He grabbed my arm farm more roughly than was necessary and led me into yet another room. None of the others were there. He instructed me to put my hand in an ominous-looking machine, and for some reason I obeyed. The opening was surrounding by some sort of latex substance that conformed to and tightened around my hand. The machine ground out some noises, and suddenly I felt the strangest sensation, as if an ice cube was dropping through my hand and got stuck there. My arm was ejected from the machine, and I looked with awe at the Exsphere now on my hand. Icy tendrils were creeping out from it, up and down my bloodstream, sapping me of all my warmth. I felt weak.

So entranced was I with my new Exsphere that I hardly noticed the fighting that broke out behind me. But space cadet that I am, even I can't ignore a man's dying scream.

I turned around. A few red-clad soldiers were holding off others who were trying to get in the door, while others made toward the crates stacked in the far end of the room. But what really caught my attention was the tall half-elf ordering the others around.

_Botta._

And he had a _really_ sexy voice, never mind the random unplaceable accent. Why did he have to die?

The Renegades barred the door shut and gathered around him. I was somewhat relieved to find that the dead Desian's body had already disintegrated, a process that I was tempted to call returning to the Lifestream. Sylvarant must really be strapped for mana, then.

Lost in thought, I nearly missed the Renegades leaving the room through another door. They hadn't even noticed me, hunkered against the machinery as I was. No, no, don't leave me... "Wait!"

The last one spun around, sword raised, but lowered it slightly when he saw me. I must have looked pathetic. For some absurd reason I started worrying about how my hair looked. "Help me," I elaborated, as if he couldn't understand. My voice was somewhat harsh, not having talked for almost a day now.

"Sir!" he called through the door. Botta reappeared, and I was so relieved I didn't even bother to revel in his presence. "What about this one, sir?"

Botta gave me a piercing glance and said after a pause, "Might as well, we're almost out."

Thank God. Thank Martel. Thank whatever deity was listening, I was saved. The Renegade extended a hand towards me, and I took a step forward, only to have my ankle go out.

In my head, I ran through every curse I knew. This being a very short list, this didn't take long and I was left to whimper in pain. Even as the Renegade slung me over his back to ride piggyback, it occurred to me that it didn't actually _hurt --_ my ankle just wouldn't work anymore. It felt cold. I glared at my Exsphere, as if that would help anything.

I was carried through the rest of the base in a haze, vaguely wondering if this happened to everybody who got an Exsphere implanted. A few more Desians and one Renegade were killed, and I tried not to look, but my drooping eyes prevented me from seeing much anyway. As I drifted off, the only sensation I could feel was a tingling in my hand as the Exsphere drew power to itself.

---

"...accelerated deterioration," was the first thing I heard upon waking. My sleep-addled brain didn't even comprehend these words for a minute or so, upon which I realized that I was being talked about. For the second time in what was probably two days, I slowed my breathing and pretended to be asleep.

I was lying on my back on a comfortable surface this time, and the cold that had been racing through my veins was gone. There were at least two people in the room, one of whom was clearly Yuan. I felt a little thrilled that he had deigned to look in on me personally.

Of course, he just had to ruin the moment by saying, in exactly the same tone as Kratos had, "I know you're awake." Stupid angels. Could he hear my accelerated heartbeat or something?

I reluctantly opened one eye. Indeed, a blurry Yuan and an unidentifiable Renegade were standing over me. I reached a hand up to my eyes, and my glasses were gone. Lovely.

"How are you feeling?" the Renegade asked me.

"Well, aside from the fact that I'm half blind now, I'm fine," I replied, sitting up. This Renegade seemed like a doctor, and I felt comfortable around him.

The Renegade I had internally named Doctor Man nodded. "Your glasses fell off during your fortuitous rescue," he informed me. "You will have to do without until we can make you another pair."

I felt my eyes widen. They were _nice._ Granted, they were dedicated to defeating Cruxis, but they never quite struck me as _nice_.

My eyes were inexorably drawn towards Yuan. Or was it because who I was? A stranger in a strange land, to be cliched yet again?

Yuan smirked at my look, and I suddenly had the irrational fear that he would somehow find out that I had a huge girly crush on him. But no, angels could do many things, but they couldn't read minds. I hoped.

Of course, if I continued staring like I was, he would probably figure it out anyway. After 4000 years, he _had_ to know what he does to the ladies.

"If you would leave us for a moment," he said to Doctor Man, and for a moment I was freaking out before I told myself to stop being so retarded. As soon as the door closed, he looked me straight in the eye. _He has green eyes, _I noted absently. Once again my wish for a notepad made itself known. "I have it on good authority that you, Robyn, are from another world."

"How --" Kratos, right. He was trying to intimidate me with his knowledge. Well, I would play along. "How did you know?..."

There was that smirk again. "Good authority, as I said. Have you heard of Tethe'alla?"

"No."

"Nor Sylvarant?"

"No." Great, this was going to be just like Kratos's interrogation.

"Hmm." Yuan sat down in a chair I hadn't noticed before and leaned back. "How did you end up here?"

"Um, I was sitting drinking coffee and suddenly I woke up on the floor someplace else," I told him, deciding to condense it.

"You woke up?" I nodded. "Has it occurred to you that your world might be merely a dream?"

I gaped. No, I had not. No, that was impossible. "No, that's impossible."

He looked me up and down. "Aside from your odd clothes, what proof have you that you're from another world?"

I opened my mouth and closed it again. My bookbag and textbooks were back in the House of Salvation, and my purse and cellphone were most likely still on the floor of Jazzman's Cafe. "I...I know all this stuff," I said lamely. Yuan raised an eyebrow, and I elaborated, "About my world. Details I couldn't have possibly gotten out of a dream. And I know nothing about this world except what I've learned in the past few days," I added, lying between my teeth.

Yuan was clearly not convinced. "You will remain here until we can determine whether you have been subjected to severe head trauma, resulting in delusions," he said, changing the subject neatly. "If you are indeed delusional as I expect, we will send you to the nearest mental institution. This is not a hospital." This last was said with a bit of a glare, as if I was using up his precious resources that he was providing for me out of the kindness of his heart. I supposed I was.

Yuan stood up and made his way to the door, cape flaring out behind him. "Stay here," he said as he opened the door, as an afterthought. "The doctor will be back shortly."

I had the weirdest sense of being in a doctor's office. I looked down at my hands. The Exsphere, which I had completely forgotten about, now had the addition of a strange metal band carved with runes encircling it.

A Keycrest.

"Thank you," I said to the empty room.

A/N: Whoo, four chapters in one go.

...Sweet Martel, why am I posting this? This is a horrible story.


	5. Secret Agent Girl

A/N: Just a short note, though it probably doesn't apply to anyone who's bothered to read this far: I'm writing this purely for my own amusement, and am only continuing to post it because a few people seem to like it. I am aware that it is unoriginal and contrived, so you don't need to tell me. Sorry for spamming up the genre, but I've seen worse. That is all.

Chapter 5

Later that day -- night, whatever, it was impossible to keep time around here -- they gave me new glasses and new clothes, as my old set was torn and stunk to high heaven. Then they left me alone in my room with my thoughts.

It was then that the events that had happened to me in so short a time caught up to me. Maybe some small part of my mind decided that I hadn't been stressed enough during, but in any case I had a nervous breakdown in the corner. About fifteen minutes of uncontrollable shaking later an alarm of some sort went off, leading me into another panic, thinking it was a fire alarm. But the door was locked, making me effectively a prisoner, so I was left to sit waiting for my death. But when no flames came to claim my life, I decided that I was overreacting yet again.

At some point I must have dozed off, because I was awakened by the door opening. It was Doctor Man again. "The results of your tests have come in," he said. Tests? I didn't remember any tests. "There's no evidence of cranial injury," he went on, "but you have a previously undocumented blood type." Had they stuck needles into me while I wasn't looking? And my blood type was fine, thank you very much. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was normal. "We have decided to do further tests."

"But --" The doctor looked up in surprise at my interruption. "But I'm fine."

He cocked his head at me. "You don't really have a choice in the matter."

"What?"

Doctor Man came further into the room. "I can't really disclose our reasons to you, but we are a tightly-run organization," he told me with a stern look. "An anomaly such as you cannot be overlooked."

"But Yu --" I stopped myself, remembering I wasn't supposed to know his name. Hopefully he would just think I had said "you." "But that other guy didn't even believe I'm from another world!"

"That's why we're doing the tests." He tapped the side of his nose. "To see if you are."

"But --"

"Protesting will get you nowhere." He made some adjustments to some machine in the corner of the room, then moved back towards the door. "In a few minutes a team will come in to assist me with the first test."

I squirmed on the bed as the door closed behind him.

---

Because I was too shy to ask, I never found out how long I stayed there. By my own estimations it was probably a couple days. My days were marked by either strange incomprehensible tests inflicted on my person or excuricating boredom. I wasn't allowed to leave the room, and there wasn't so much as an instruction booklet for me to read. Instead I retreated into the world inside my head, depleted somewhat by my own guilt for making up stories about people I now knew actually existed.

While I was in the middle of a daydream involving Yuusuke and Harry Potter, to my surprise Botta barged into my room. Ever since Yuan had left however long ago, the only people I had seen were the doctor, whose name I had never actually learned, and his assistants. Before I could even begin to wonder what he was doing here he began to speak to me in a hurried tone.

"We have some work for you to do, in return for our hospitality," he said, drawing something out of a pocket and handing it to me. It was a metallic bracelet with a circular indent in the center, along with some other odd decorations. "There is a group that we need surveillance on, and you seem a likely candidate," he continued as I analyzed the bracelet. "With your previous contact with the Chosen's group, I doubt they will suspect you." I looked up. What? The Chosen? I had a bad idea where this was leading. "They have infiltrated our base here, and they will 'rescue' you from the 'Desians.' You will report to us daily using that bracelet." He pointed out what looked like a glass bead and told me that I could press that to contact them and then talk into the bracelet.

"But -- the Chosen? I mean, isn't that kind of --" I began hoplessly.

"You have no choice in the matter." Botta was now trying to bustle me out the door. "There are complications as a result of your Exsphere implant, so every day after your report insert it in that indent there. Otherwise it will parasitize you far more quickly than normal." But, the Keycrest -- "These two will escort you to where you need to be." With that he was gone in a whirl of robes, leaving me with two Renegades.

"Come on," said one, and we were off.

As I was led through corridors that all looked the same to me, I couldn't help but wonder what I was getting into. Spying on Lloyd? First off, if I gave the Renegades too much information I could completely prevent the world from being saved. But if I gave them too little, they might to decide to cut me off and I'd turn into a monster like Marble. And what was up with that anyway?

My train of thought was derailed when we turned a corner and ran quite literally into Kratos and Lloyd. I windmilled my arms, trying to keep my balance, and one of the Renegades put a hand on my shoulder and drew me back, almost protectively.

"Take the priosoner and call for backup!" the other one shouted, even as he jumped back to avoid Kratos's sword.

"Yes sir!" the other one replied, too close to my ear for comfort. He started to drag me away, but was intercepted by one of Colette's chakrams, which whizzed close enough by me for me to hear. His cry of "Oh, shit!" and my sudden release made me turn to him in horror -- his hands were clamped over one eye and he looked to be in considerable pain.

Someone else grabbed my hand and I was pulled away from the Renegades. I turned yet again, getting somewhat dizzy, and Genis was alternating between staring at my face and the Exsphere on my hand.

Apparently the battle was over already, as suddenly we started running in the direction I had come from. I tried to look back as I was dragged along in their wake, and the two Renegades were on the floor. One was crawling over to the other, who wasn't moving. I turned away, feeling sick.

"What's...going...on?" I wheezed, already exhausted after running a dozen yards.

"I could ask the same of you," Raine replied, not nearly out of breath as me.

We passed by a few startled Renegades and then we were at what I assumed was the entrance. Lloyd inserted his fingers in the cracks of the doors and pulled, to no avail. "It won't open!"

Kratos nodded at a keypad by the door. "Try the console over there"

Raine and I immediately hurried over. It looked like a simple security keypad, like you would find in someone's house by the front door -- ten number keys and a display that read only "armed." "Any ideas?" Raine asked, as if I would know. Oh yeah, I told her I knew about computers. She probably knew more than I did.

The only ideas I had I had got from movies I had watched, so I said, "One relies on them not changing the password periodically, and the other relies on being able to rip this thing out of the wall and knowing which wires to cross, so not really."

There was a crash of metal on metal behind me and I half-turned. "Hurry!" came Colette's voice. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Genis preparing a spell, and I couldn't help but turn my head to stare at the blue light surrounding his hands.

"Got it!" I heard Raine say beside me. A glance at the keypad showed that she had somehow managed to disarm the system. The doors slid open and without thinking I ran out into the smoldering heat of the desert.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge creature rise up out of the shadows of the base. I let out a shriek that sounded something like "hweegle" and tried to back away, but I felt my foot twist under me and I tumbled to the ground. The sand bit at my fingers as I tried to back away.

"Get up!" Lloyd shouted, hauling me up by one arm. The thing came into the light, and I realized it was Noishe, as big as a pony. I came down too hard on my foot again, and caught at Noishe's shoulder for support. "Noishe?" I muttered softly, before I could stop myself. He flicked an ear towards me in surprise.

"Let's go!" Kratos shouted impatiently. The others were already ahead of me. I took a step and squeaked in pain. Kratos rolled his eyes and a green light surrounded his hands, and to my amazement a cool stream seemed to flow through my ankle, taking all the pain with it. I barely had time to move my foot around expirimentally before Kratos grabbed my hand and forced me to start running. Noishe loped along in long strides beside me.

After a few minutes of running Kratos allowed us to stop, and I fell to the ground hacking my lungs out. "We're not being followed," he said over my panting.

"How odd," Raine muttered. She glanced at Lloyd, then me. "We'd better get moving nonetheless. Some of us have some explaining to do."

"Let me finish dying first," I said in between breaths, getting up anyway. No one paid any attention to me, much to my chagrin.

"Who _were_ those guys?" Lloyd asked as we walked towards some unidentifiable shimmering haze in the distance.

"Desians, I would presume," said Kratos, as if he didn't know any better.

"Man, why'd they chose such a crappy place to put a ranch?" Lloyd whined.

"Did they hurt you, Lloyd?" Colette put in anxiously.

Lloyd shook his head. "Beside that fight with the spiky-haired guy, no."

Genis laughed, "Your hair is just as bad, Lloyd."

"Shut it, Genis."

I felt a grin tugging at my face, despite my exhaustion. Yup, these were the characters I knew and loved.


End file.
